Saved Life By Crash On Lake

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 1

Saved Life By Crash On Lake

(New Zealand Preet Association) INVERCARGILL, Dec. 21. A Cessna 206 float plane of Ritchie Air Services was seriously damaged when it crash landed and ran up on the beach at the southern end of Lake Gunn, in Fiordland, early on Monday evening.

Only the excellent airmanship of the pilot, Captain W. Black, saved his life and saved the aircraft from destruction. The £16,000 six-seater aircraft, less than a year old, was carrying venison from Lake Alabaster to Lake Gunn. Captain Black had been flying in windy weather, but the wind had dropped to flat calm by evening. He was about to touch down on the lake when the aircraft was hit by a strong gust of wind and tiie landing was aborted. Captain Black throttled to full power in an attempt to make a second landing, but when he discovered he would be unable to clear the trees and rising ground ahead, he promptly crash landed back on the lake.

The aircraft ran out of the lake and ran up the beach and nosed into the trees.

Captain Black suffered a bump on the head and superficial cuts, but today was fully recovered. Captain lan Ritchie, manager of R.A.S., which is part of the Tourist Air Travel Group, said tonight that the damage to the aircraft had not been assessed. Engineers from the firm’s. Queenstown maintenance base were unable to fly to Lake Gunn today because of the weather.

The loss of the aircraft, just as the tourist season was getting under way, would be sorely felt. Earlier this year, only a matter of days after it arrived at Te Anau, the float plane capsized and sank in Lake McKerrow